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Sally K. Williams, Noufoh Djeri, Edsel Redden, David Dinkins, and David Bearl2 1. This document is AN220, one of a series of the Animal Science Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date July 2009. Visit the EDIS Web Site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu. 2. Sally K. Williams, associate professor; Noufoh Djeri, doctoral student;Department of Animal Sciences; Edsel Redden, extension director, Putnam County; David Dinkins, extension director, Flagler County; David Bearl, culinary arts director, First Coast Technical College, St. Augustine FL; Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Datil peppers were used in this project to make a Unique to Florida value-added processed meat product. Datil peppers are grown primarily in St. Augustine, Florida, although they are cultivated throughout the United States and elsewhere. The peppers have been cultivated in St. Augustine for roughly 230 years. The Datil pepper summer sausage revealed a new application for the peppers in lieu of traditional applications such as hot sauces, relishes and dried pepper flakes. Datil pepper, also referred to as "daddle pepper" is a variety of the species Capsicum chinense (syn. Capsicum sinense). Datil peppers are similar to habaneros but have a sweeter and fruitier flavor. Their level of heat (pungency) may be anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 scoville heat units (SHU) (Foster, 2009), as compared to 350,000 to 500,000 SHU for habanero peppers. The Datil pepper pods are green and mature to orange or yellow, elongated in shape and can measure a length of one to four inches (2.54 10.16 cm). If grown outside, the pepper must be planted when there is no frost. The peppers need warm growing conditions and are a full season cultivar. The plant will reach maturity in about five months. Other peppers in the species Capsicum chinense include scotch bonnet, habaneros and rocotillo. Datil peppers are cultivated throughout the United States and elsewhere, but the majority is produced in St. Augustine, Florida where they have been traditionally cultivated for roughly 230 years. It is thought that the datil pepper was introduced to the St. Augustine area by Minorcan settlers in the 1700s, but a more plausible explanation is that it was introduced via trade with the Caribbean islands. The peppers are used to make hot sauces, relishes, and dried pepper flakes (Bosland, 1999). Datil peppers were used in this project to make a Unique to Florida value-added processed meat product. Fresh datil peppers were obtained from Chef David Bearl, Director of Culinary Arts Institute at First Coast Technical College in St. Augustine, FL.

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Datil Pepper Summer Sausage: An Innovative Product Using Florida Datil Peppers 2 Chef Bearl grows the peppers under greenhouse conditions. The peppers were transported to the University of Florida's USDA-inspected Meat Processing facility, washed, drained and split longitudinally. The seeds were removed and placed in a Ziploc bag for use in a second formulation. Peppers were chopped and added to the meat and seasoning mixture (Table 1). In an effort to utilize the whole pepper (i.e., pepper plus seeds), a second formulation was prepared where datil pepper seeds plus the chopped peppers were added to the meat mixture. The meat mixture was blended and stuffed into fibrous casings, placed into the smokehouse and cooked to an internal temperature of 155 F (Table 2). The cooked sausage was removed from the smokehouse and chilled to an internal temperature of 35 F. The sausage was stored in the cooked meat cooler for 24 hours prior to evaluation for sensory characteristics (flavor, texture, overall appearance and general acceptance) by a consumer sensory panel. Duplicate subsamples per product were collected and analyzed for moisture (oven drying technique, method 985.14 AOAC, 2000), ash (muffle oven technique, method 920.153 AOAC, 2000), fat (method 960.39 AOAC, 2000), protein (Kjeldahl procedure, 928.08 AOAC, 2000), carbohydrate (by difference), water activity (Aqua Lab water activity meter, Model CX2, Decagon Devices, Pullman, WA) and pH (Accumet AB15 pH meter, Fisher Scientific). A commercially available summer sausage was purchased from a local supermarket and compared to the Datil summer sausage for proximate composition, water activity and pH. Samples of the product were shipped to Putnam County UF/IFAS Extension office for evaluation at various predetermined meetings and receptions which included the Culinary Arts Institute at the First Coast Technical College. The moisture, protein, fat, ash, carbohydrate, water activity and pH of all summer sausages were similar (Table 3) which revealed that the peppers did not affect the proximate composition, water activity and pH of the summer sausage. Sensory evaluation of the products revealed acceptable flavor, texture, overall appearance and general acceptance (Table 4). However, flavor and general acceptance of the summer sausage containing the Datil pepper seeds were rated lower due to the presence of additional heat imparted by the seeds. The panelists commented that the seeds increased the heat in the sausage and masked the meaty flavor. The panelists preferred the overall appearance of the sausage containing the seeds. The production of Datil pepper summer sausage revealed a new product that can be produced using Florida grown peppers. The peppers also functioned to increase product line extension for summer sausage. Chef Bearl is currently exploring numerous applications for the Datil peppers in meat as well as nonmeat applications. These applications include Datil Salami, Datil Kielbasa, Datil O'Brien Potato recipe and Datil Jelly. He describes the Datil Jelly as just plain wonderful and very well received by everyone." Association of Analytical Communities. 2000. Official methods of analysis of the association of official analytical chemists, 17th ed. Association of Official Analytical Chemists, Washington, DC. Bosland, P. 1999. Encyclopedia of Chiles. Page 92 in Chile Peppers. Handbook # 161. Brooklyn Botanic Garden Foster, N. 2009. What is A Datil Pepper? http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-datil-pepper.htm Accessed May 15, 2009